Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the audioARC.

Somewhere out of time and out of space there is a fountain where lost things gather. Until the day their owner comes to seek them they are carefully put away in a library, looked after by moth winged angels. How can you get to this place, you ask? Well, you'll need to be invited by the Island.

So, this book certainly didn't go in the direction I expected it to at the beginning. Good job!
I found the start a bit slow and was really glad when at least some point of view characters merged into one team. With the whole story behind me now, I understand why all of them couldn't meet sooner.

I loved the focus on various iterations of motherhood and how they can each influence children. Considering this, though, I'm a little disheartened that so many of the mother figures became lost to the main characters. I was hoping for some miracle for at least a few of them, since the early on the story read like a book on the younger end of young adult novels. By the middle it became far too dark for that, but we need stories like this, too.

I think the main strength of The Losting Fountain is the character development. It gradually shows both descent into madness and finding our confidence and inner powers. Depicting different paths with similar starting points (abuse, little freedom) is really important in confirming that what kind of people we become is a choice.

The dynamics among the MC group were also great, with each of them developing unique connections towards the others. Kudos for there being very little hint of romance, that's quite rare in most stories. (Make no mistake, I like shipping characters, but it's nice to switch things up a bit on occasion.)

What I missed is a proper explanation for how the villains became the way they were, but the ending hints at a possible sequel, so I'm going to wait and see.